A 23-year-old magazine salesman from Alabama was charged Tuesday with breaking into an 86-year-old La Grange Highlands woman’s home and sexually assaulting her during the Labor Day weekend, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.

George Lucas, of Clanton, Ala., is charged with home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault, both Class X felonies. He is being held on $750,000 bond. His next court date is Sept. 16.

County police spokesman Steve Patterson said Lucas had no serious prior run-ins with the law, with the exception of a probation violation related to a DUI offense in Georgia.

“You just don’t know what goes through someone’s mind to do what that guy did,” Patterson said.

Investigators said Lucas was in the area selling magazines door-to-door for Hazel Crest-based Midwest Clearing, a distributor for Connecticut-based Paragon Sales. He had been with a sales team from Wisconsin that began canvassing the La Grange Highlands area around 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Lucas was to make sales calls on 25 homes before being picked up around 8:30 p.m. According to investigators, Lucas said he began drinking shots of vodka with a neighborhood resident after his co-workers failed to pick him up.

He walked to a nearby gas station around 10 p.m. to purchase cigarettes, then began wandering the neighborhood. He was in the victim’s backyard for a short time before going into her home in the 1300 block of 52nd Place. Lucas told police he entered through an unlocked door. However, police found a screen had been cut open.

Lucas told investigators he ate and watched TV in the victim’s home before seeing her sleeping in her bedroom. He then entered her room, covered her mouth and sexually assaulted her.

Lucas left a bag of magazine information in the victim’s backyard, including information identifying him, after he threw her home phone out of the house and fled.

The woman made it to the home of a neighbor, who then dialed 911.

Lucas arrived early Saturday morning at the Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital emergency room, where the victim was being treated and talking to investigators. Lucas was complaining he was sick and spitting up blood. Sheriff’s police investigators recognized his name from the identifying information left at the scene and arrested Lucas.