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GREENSBORO - If you think organized crime is confined to big cities and illegal businesses such as prostitution, gambling and smuggling, you might want to check your back door.

The Guilford County Sheriff's Office on Friday detailed a broad investigation - and subsequent arrests - that involves organized gangs of thieves working together to break into area homes and steal valuables.

The thieves' work, which often involves profiling certain homes before break-ins, is atypical of what officers usually see for break-ins.

"Problems with break-ins can usually be associated with such things as substance abuse," Sheriff BJ Barnes said at a news conference Friday.

But with this latest investigation, Barnes said: "In many cases, the people breaking in are just doing a job. ... It's just another line of work for them."

The sheriff's office announced the arrest of more than 50 members of sophisticated burglary rings . The groups, which vary in size from three to 20 members, have been accused of 75 crimes in the county.

Add cases in Greensboro, High Point and surrounding counties involving those arrested, and the total is more than 100.

Larger groups of thieves have made arrests more difficult, said Col. Randy Powers, the sheriff's chief deputy.

Typically, people use different methods to break into a house and steal items.

And a burglar tends to target houses in a particular area that can be traced back to him.

The large groups work together, trading roles often and obscuring those patterns, Powers said.

"With what they're doing today, it has made it that much harder," he said. "This is a new trend, which is changing our method of doing our job."

Items stolen include difficult-to-track jewelry, expensive electronics such as flat-screen TVs, video game consoles and laptop computers, and firearms.

The largest group the deputies have arrested, with more than 20 members, targeted homes with boats, four-wheel-drive vehicles and American flags displayed outside.

Those homes were likely to house "outdoorsmen," where the thieves would be likely to find guns, said Detective James Hamlett.

Hamlett said that although the groups had many hallmarks of criminal gangs, they were not associated with any known street gangs.

The number of burglaries committed in the county increased from 561 in the period from Jan. 1, 2007, to Sept. 19, 2007, to 646 during that period this year, said Janet Deberry, a crime analyst for the sheriff's office.

That 15 percent increase is largely because of the groups identified at the press conference, Powers said.

High Point Police Lt. Jeff Blank has investigated similar crimes in High Point.

Blank said the need for quick cash to buy drugs still fuels thefts, but that is a smaller share of burglaries than in the past.

"It makes it tougher that way sometimes. ... I guess they're smarter now than in the past, working together, but they still make mistakes," Blank said. "That allows us to catch them."

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com