After six months of searching for discovered cash’s rightful owner, man about to claim treasure for himself

On October 12, a Massachusetts man named Carlos discovered more than $20,000 in a hollowed out book he found while rummaging through discarded books in a dumpster in Wellesley.

The Brazilian immigrant felt compelled to find the money's original owner:

"My point of view is, I want to see because if someone maybe who separated the money to buy a house, put a down payment for the house," he told UPI. "What if that happened to me, if it was me? I"m going to go crazy, alright?"

He pledged to search for the rightful owner of the small fortune for six months. At that point, he would decide whether or not he should keep the money.

At the time, he told Wicked Local that he'd probably donate a portion of his findings to charity and keep the rest if no one stepped forward.

He advertised an email address — ipatimaga2005@comcast.net – in a Wellesley newspaper and then sorted through more than 180 responses from around the world, many of them making false claims on the money.

"They tried to explain the book belongs to their family, a grandfather, or grandmother," he told CBS Boston. "But they couldn’t give me the right information."

He said none of the people who contacted him could name the title of the book or the exact amount of money he found.

Now six months later, Carlos is getting ready to claim the money for himself.

"I can be guilt-free that I did search and try my best to find the person," he told CBS Boston.

If the money isn't claimed by midnight on May 8, Carlos will immediately give some of it to charity and help his daughter with her school tuition.

Since discovering the cash, Carlos has spent very little of it. While he did visit his mother in Brazil and have some damaged teeth fixed, he said he's prepared to replace that money if the owner of the cash-filled book steps forward.

He told the Wicked Local that he plans to write a book about his life: "Wellesley Treasure."