RALEIGH – Last night, Tyler Mabe told his mom he might have to buy a used car to replace his ailing Jeep. Then, at about 7:30 this morning, he called her with much better news: He won $750,000 playing the lottery.

“Early bird gets the worm I guess,” the Thomasville native said at lottery headquarters just hours later. “It was pretty awesome.”

Mabe had gone out of his way to fuel up at Smitty’s 1 Stop on Lexington Avenue in High Point, because they have ethanol-free gas, he said. That’s where he bought a $10 Jumbo Bucks ticket and returned to his Jeep to find out if he won anything.

“I scratched the first part of the prize amount off and saw the 7,” Mabe recalled. “That’s unusual so I knew it had to be the big money. Then I saw the $750,000.”

Mabe decided to buy the game because it was new and the store owner, Suchita Parikh, told him it was a fresh roll of tickets. Parikh said by telephone she was happy to hear one of her loyal customers won a big prize.

“Wow he’s lucky,” she said. “I would say congratulations to him.”

Mabe, a service technician, said he planned to share some of his $519,378 in after-tax winnings with his family – and that he still plans to make an automotive purchase soon.

“I’m probably going to be looking at some different cars now,” he added.

Jumbo Bucks belongs to the Bucks family of games that are always in stores. This week, a new round of the games began, with an updated look for the tickets. Mabe is the first winner of $750,000 in the new game, leaving seven more to be claimed.

Ticket sales made it possible for the lottery to raise more than half a billion dollars for the state last year. For details on how $51 million in lottery funds have made a difference in Davidson County, click on the “Where the Money Goes” tab on the lottery’s website.