Siblings made pact to split jackpot if either won NC lottery. It just happened

It’s not uncommon for optimistic lottery players to swear they’ll share their winnings – before they actually win.

Siblings Ivan Barrett and Beverly Berryman are an example, having pledged to split the jackpot if either won anything in the North Carolina Education Lottery.

Well, it finally happened to one of them.

Berryman paid $5 for a Cash King ticket at the Prince Mart on Wilson Road in her hometown of Sanford, and beats odds of 1 in 1,342,110 to win the jackpot, lottery officials said in a Feb. 6 news release.

She scratched off the ticket in the gas station’s parking lot and discovered it was worth $200,000.

“I was in shock,” Berryman said in a release. “I was like, ‘You can’t believe this.’ I had to show it to him (her brother).”

The siblings said their pact to split lottery prizes was made “long ago,” but Berryman kept her word.

“They arrived at lottery headquarters Friday (Feb. 6) to claim the prize,” lottery officials said in the release. “They both claimed $100,000 and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, they each took home $72,011.”

Berryman plans to use her share to buy a house, and her brother intends to pay off his car, officials said. He lives in Goldston, about a 12-mile drive north from Sanford.

The Cash King game debuted in January with four $200,000 top prizes, and Berryman is the second person to win one of them.

Sanford is about a 45-mile drive southwest from downtown Raleigh.