RALEIGH – Robert Tyburski, an electrician from Grimesland in Pitt County, won $100,000 on a $5 Mega Bucks ticket. He purchased it around 12:30 p.m. Monday at the Oasis on Southeast Greenville Boulevard in Greenville and scratched it off in his truck.

After seeing that he had won $100,000, Tyburski tried to convince his wife by telephone of his good luck. He said she didn’t believe him until she saw it with her own eyes.

Tyburski wasted no time heading to lottery headquarters in Raleigh to collect his prize money.

“I never thought I’d be standing here,” he said as he received a check for after-tax winnings of $68,001. “This is pretty cool.”

Tyburski is the eighth player from Pitt County, and the first from Grimesland, to win a prize of $100,000 or more on an N.C. Education Lottery scratch-off game. Since the lottery began through June 30 of last year, Pitt County players won more than $75.9 million in prizes and local retailers earned more than $9.9 million in commissions on ticket sales.

During the same time frame, Pitt County education programs received more than $31.7 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, need-based college scholarships, and prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds.

To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.2 billion for these initiatives statewide.