Rhode Island detectorist helps reunite lost custom wedding band with owner

A custom wedding band built with pink sand from Jamaica, titanium and wood from a whisky barrel vanished in the surf at East Matunuck, and Gary Bonin became one of the first calls. The owner, Owen Dumas, lost the ring while splashing in the water with his wife, Liana Reif, turning a beach mishap into a very local test of skill, timing and persistence.

The ring carried more than metal and wood. Dumas and Reif met at Johnson & Wales University while playing rugby, and the couple are avid cruisers, which made the band a travel piece as much as a wedding band. That kind of personal build is exactly why beach recoveries in Rhode Island feel different from a routine lost-and-found case. Once a ring disappears into wet sand or moving water, the clock starts immediately.

That is where detectorists like Bonin matter. The Charlestown detectorist has been a member of The Ring Finders since 2011, and his profile says he searches beaches, parks, lakes and yards across all of Rhode Island, plus southern Massachusetts and eastern Connecticut. He also uses underwater detectors and can search in water up to 4 1/2 feet deep, which is the kind of reach that makes a shallow surf recovery possible when a ring slips off in waist-high water or gets pulled by a wave.

Bonin’s track record shows how this hobby works when it is done well. On January 28, 2026, he reported finding a ring at Misquamicut Beach and mailing it back to the owner in Connecticut. In 2016, while searching Horseneck Beach in Westport for a lost wedding band, he found a 1998 Boston College class ring with a red stone and later helped reconnect it with its owner. Those are the kinds of recoveries that build trust fast: not bullion, not relics, just objects that matter deeply to one person and often disappear in minutes.

The same volunteer ethic showed up in a 2025 WJAR story about friends from Southern New England spending countless hours helping people recover jewelry lost at the beach. That is the practical side of the Rhode Island shoreline scene. The right detectorist knows the ground, the water and the habits of a crowded summer beach, and the work often ends with a mailed envelope, a relieved owner and another reason for the hobby to be seen as service, not just searching.

At East Matunuck, the band did not stay a mystery. It came back into the hands of the couple who knew exactly what it was worth, and the shallow water that swallowed it became the place where a detectorist’s patience paid off.