FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A former soldier faces federal charges after agents arrested him Monday for allegedly making bombs in his neighborhood.

Roger Nice, 64, of Saddle Ridge Road in Fayetteville, was arrested at a nearby restaurant after federal agents and a local bomb squad searched his home in the College Lake subdivision and found what they called "several homemade bombs that could have gone off," authorities said.

"Destructive devices have one purpose, and that is to injure people, or kill them," said Joe Lenczyk, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Certainly, these devices were capable of doing that."

While investigators declined to comment on what led them to Nice or what he may have been planning to do with the alleged explosives, his wife told WRAL that he was just making firecrackers.

Neighbors were stunned when they learned about Nice's arrest and the allegations against him. They said he was a truck driver who they hardly saw because he often traveled.

"He seemed like a nice, quiet truck driver," said neighbor Mary Caven.

Nice is expected to be arraigned at a federal court in Greenville.