Sepulveda Heyes lives just a few doors down from the Washington Circle home in Harlingen where police say they searched on Sunday for a reported bomb.
"I'm very, very stunned," she said. "I'm very shocked to hear that it's right down, 4 houses down from me. I'm terrified."
The mother of four never imagined her neighborhood could be the staging ground for potential terror.
"I didn't expect to hear this," Heyes said. "Not in my neighborhood. It's very quiet."
UTB police arrested Henry McFarland III on Sunday for making a terroristic threat.
He claimed to have a pressure plate bomb in his living room and would use it to exact revenge against a student on campus, according to police.
The alleged threat was called in by the former marine to the National Veteran's Crisis Hotline six hours before his arrest.
A police affidavit lists his parent's address as his home, where a U.S. Marine Corps official emblem and insignia, along with other military symbols, can be found outside.
Heyes is glad to hear law enforcement took swift action, despite turning up no evidence of an actual bomb at the house or his apartment off Morgan Boulevard.
"A bomb threat is something very, very serious," she said. "If we do not take people serious about their actions then we have to pay the consequences later."
The 25-year-old apparently suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is in the process of converting to Islam, a police report stated.
According to the records, McFarland planned to detonate a bomb in retaliation to a classmate's derogatory remark against the Muslim faith.
Heyes is a bible store owner who says people have the right to choose their own religion, not who to kill.
"What would you say to his parents if you saw them out on the street?" Action 4's Ryan Wolf asked.
"I would tell them that I have their son and their family in prayer," she answered
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