Static electricity in bread crumbs?

Something pretty strange happened at the table today and I thought I’d run it by you guys to see if I could get to understand it better.

My mother was clearing away a placemat that had quite a lot of breadcrumbs on it, and when she was walking, the crumbs literally ‘jumped’ off the placemat, away from her. When she stopped, the crumbs continued to jump, a couple at a time. Could static electricity cause this? Or is it some sort of bizarre surface tension of the placemat (she was holding both ends of it, so the middle sort of caved in)? Either way, it was a pretty bizarre spectacle, and I’m wondering if anyone has an explanation.