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Lapeer resident Erin Zettle decided to hang her a different message after someone painted a swastika on the door at her home.

(Courtesy Photo)

LAPEER, MI -- A Lapeer resident is fighting back against hate speech in her own way after finding a swastika painted on the door at her home earlier this week.

Erin Zettle posted a message on Facebook Jan. 31 stating someone vandalized her family's home with the symbol that caused "fear and rage and disbelief" and left her distraught.

"I wondered who could have done it and do they known me and was it religious or political or just nasty?" reads her post. "And I cried, and cried."

That's when she took a different view of the situation.

She decided to leave the symbol up to make people aware things like this do happen in the community, to someone they know and "so maybe the next time they hear something in line at the grocery store they will say "no, thank you ... not here, not today, not ever."

Most of the symbol, other than the tips poking out from underneath brown cardboard affixed to the door, have been covered with alternative messages.

"I decided that some random idiot was not going to make me paint my door, and I wanted to answer back," said Zettle, jokingly pointing out the swastika was backward from how the Nazis used the symbol.

"You should double check your hate speech before you paint it," she wrote.

The new messages have included words from late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albus Dumbledore, one of the main protagonists from the Harry Potter book and movie series from author J.K. Rowling.

"The thing is -- this isn't my community," she said of the symbol, which Zettle confirmed with MLive-Flint Journal has been reported to Lapeer police. "This is happening in my community, but I will not judge my community based on the worst of actions."

In an updated post Feb. 1, Zettle thanked everyone for coming together in a positive way has provided some relief along with the new messages following the incident.

"Something awful happened, and my friends and community have rallied behind me and my family and it has truly helped," she said.