Had a little bit of a frightening experience yesterday in JFK:

Come walking out to the airplane, there's a Comair mechanic in the galley with a worried look on her face. She says she needed to do a daily check on the ice detector, but didn't know how to start the APU and needed us to start the APU and engine.

This kinda raised a red flag in the Capt's mind....why would you need to start an engine to do a daily on the ice detector? She totally had no idea how to do the test....let alone start the APU......this Comair employed and certified mechanic. It's not that this was contract maintenance, she was part of the Comair crew there. It's not that she was an apprentice or anything, she fully had her A&P and signed the logbook.

Anyone else had an interesting encounter as this?