SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man with a stolen boarding pass got through airport security in Salt Lake City and checked in at a gate for a flight to California before he was caught earlier this month, authorities have disclosed.

Michael Salata, 61, was arrested on Nov. 5 shortly after checking into a Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland, The Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/1SmBXVy ) Wednesday.

Salata, who is on the sex offender registry in Utah, grabbed a boarding pass that a woman accidently left at a check-in kiosk and used it to get through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, said Craig Vargo, chief of airport police.

"He tried to make it seem like it was a mistake, that the boarding pass printed incorrectly, or that he grabbed the wrong boarding pass," Vargo told the newspaper.

It's unclear why the incident was first disclosed 20 days after it happened.

The news surfaced during one of the busiest travel times of the year and while the country is on alert after recent terror attacks abroad. President Barack Obama has sought to reassure Americans by saying authorities are equipped to prevent attacks in the U.S.

The day after Salata got through security in Utah, TSA officials in Washington announced enhanced security for certain inbound international flights in response to an explosion aboard a Russian passenger jet after takeoff from Egypt.

Salata was detained when the woman who had left the pass checked in using a replacement ticket that had been uploaded to her phone.

TSA spokeswoman Lori Dankers said an agent made a mistake in identifying Salata, but the man was properly screened to determine if he was carrying anything dangerous.

"There are multiple layers of security in place," Dankers said in an email to the newspaper. She declined to say whether anyone has been disciplined and did not immediately return calls Thursday from The Associated Press.

Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King says the airline relies on TSA to verify boarding passes and identification, and the airline's systems worked properly by flagging a boarding pass that already had been scanned and identifying a passenger who didn't belong on the flight.

It's not clear why Salata allegedly grabbed the boarding pass or why he wanted to get on the flight. Court records show he was cited for trespassing by police at the University of Utah twice in recent weeks — once before and once after the airport incident.

Vargo says Salata is now being investigated for felony fraudulent handling of a legal document.

Salata was placed on the sex offender registry in 2012, after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of lewdness involving a child.

No lawyer was listed for Salata Thursday, and phone numbers for him were disconnected.