They probably didn't want to get off the plane, maybe on the way home or something.
That, and didn't want to hold up everyone else on the plane, was what I was thinking. Probably told him something like, "We'll give you a break this time, slick, so this doesn't cause everybody else on board a lot of grief. Just put that Junior G-Man badge away, go back and get another flight, and don't be such an *sshole next time."
This reminded me of the man here in Atlanta's airport shortly after 9/11 who went back to the check-in counter for something, then went the wrong way on a stairway and concourse to get back to his gate. The entire airport was shut down and the terminals evacuated. When he was found he said he did it didn't want to leave his 12-year-old son to fly alone. Turned out the boy's adult uncle was with him and the dad just didn't want to miss the flight to a Georgia Bulldogs football game.
Self-important pr*cks, the both of them.