— A woman was robbed at gunpoint on the American Tobacco Trail near Otis Street in Durham Tuesday evening, police said, the same general location where a man was robbed earlier this month.

Police are investigating whether the two robberies are related.

The victim told police she was rollerblading on the trail around 7:15 p.m. when a man with a gun approached her and took her cellphone. She was not injured.

The suspect, who was wearing a black T-shirt, red Adidas shoes and a black doo-rag, ran away toward Otis Street, police said. He ditched the phone, which police recovered a short distance from the crime scene.

On July 5, also near Otis Street, a man was robbed of his cellphone and MP3 player by a man with a gun.

The incidents are the first reported robberies on the trail this year, after 14 reports of robberies and assaults in 2012.

Police have increased patrols in the area, and volunteers with the Trail Watch Program also keep an eye on the 7-mile stretch of trail that runs through Durham.

Monroe Boatwright, who lives nearby, said the crimes are frustrating.

"You live in a neighborhood, and it's happening in your neighborhood. It gives your neighborhood a bad name," he said.

"Once you get a bad name, then everybody wants to stay away from this neighborhood and then, pretty soon, it will drift over into the houses."