A four-hour search Thursday night using Limestone Correctional Facility tracking dogs failed to turn up a couple sought in an attempted purse snatching in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Athens Police Capt. Marty Bruce said the incident began at about 10 p.m. when a 61-year-old woman said someone tried to take her purse as she was walking to her car.

“She said she was going to her car when a white male, about 5 foot, 10-inches and 180 pounds, ran up behind her and grabbed her purse,” said Bruce. “The victim held on and wouldn’t let go of the purse and was knocked to the ground. When her husband attempted to help her, he was knocked down also.”

Bruce said the woman was injured and taken by ambulance to Athens-Limestone Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Meanwhile, witnesses saw the suspect jump into a black 1994 Mazda bearing a Madison County tag and being driven by a white female.

“They headed south on U.S. 31 and ran off the road into the median near Strain’s Nursery and got stuck,” said Bruce. “They got out and ran. We brought out the Limestone Correctional Facility dogs and tracked them through the nursery, back toward Limestone Memorial Gardens, and then lost them at Warrior Tractor.”

Bruce said police called off the search for the pair at 2 a.m. They have impounded the car, which had a switched tag.