When the Valley Record published an article about a truck accident on Snoqualmie Pass last week the full scope of the incident was not known. As it turned out the cargo on that truck was quarters of beef and their theft has changed a somewhat ordinary accident into one with unusual implications.

As of late last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken over the case which involves some 36,000 pounds of beef taken from a trailer hauling the beef from the Magic Valley Packing Co. in Gooding, Idaho, to the Safeway warehouse in Bellevue. The truck overturned in the early morning hours of Sept. 18 on I-90’s Airplane Curve.

When State troopers investigated the accident, they found between 50 and 60 men who looked like construction workers loading the beef from the wrecked truck in their vehicles and driving away. Some 240 beef quarters valued at $21,700 were involved in the thefts. According to county detectives, 64 of the beef quarters have been found. Some of them have been located in Yakima, Kittitas, Roslyn, Snoqualmie, Duvall, Lynnwood, North Bend and Seattle.

The F.B.I. was allowed to take over the case because the incident dealt with interstate transportation.