The owner of a popular Fredericton cafe says she is disgusted by the racist graffiti found on the side of her business Saturday morning.

Patti Hollenberg said she found swastikas drawn in black ink on the side of the building when she arrived at work.

Patti Hollenberg said she is disgusted by the graffiti she found on the side of her business Saturday morning. (Sarah Petz/ CBC)

"My heart sank. My gut obviously was troubled," she said.

"I'm pretty disgusted with it actually. But what do you do? Just try to address it and move on, speak your piece, and let people know that you're not OK with it and it's not OK."

The Chess Piece Pâtisserie & Cafe in downtown Fredericton. Hollenberg said she believes the building must have been vandalized overnight Saturday as she discovered the graffiti early in the morning, and it was not there the evening before. (Sarah Petz/CBC )

Being in the middle of downtown, Hollenberg said having her business vandalized with graffiti is nothing new.

But this is the first time something this hateful has been painted on the walls.

She took to Facebook to speak out about the incident.

"I learned once that by saying nothing means you're ok with the status quo," she wrote.

"Your hate is not welcome here."

People responded to her post with words of support for her and her business.

"Social media has been good in this sense. The community's been kind of very quick to pick up this and have our backs. At least it's not tolerated," she said.

How is this even a thing still? I don't even understand. - Patti Hollenberg

Hollenberg reported the incident to police, and said officers told her they would open an investigation.

CBC reached out to the Fredericton Police Force for comment late Saturday afternoon, but did not receive a response.

In the meantime, staff at the cafe were able to paint over the graffiti.

Staff were able to paint over the graffiti so it is at least no longer on display. (Sarah Petz/CBC )

Hollenberg said she believes the vandalism was a random occurrence, and that her business wasn't being targeted per se.

But considering that her ancestors and those of her husband moved to Canada from Europe "to get away from this exact disgusting [behaviour]," it's extremely upsetting to see people continue to behave like this, she said.

"It's just so frustrating to think that the level of unintelligence, the lack of intelligence, that's been displayed by this," she said.

"Like, how is this even a thing still? I don't even understand."