not the first one and,sadly,not the last one,but the sum is somewhat outrageously high
this guy must have been nuts to carry that much money with him first place and you cannot just trade 278k$ in cash for bitcoins and expect not to be robbed
there were similar stories the place where I live,involving Localbitcoins traders
the scheme was simple yet very effective: a criminal rents an appartment ground floor with two exits
arranges a meeting with a buyer (cash only of course) then under the pretext of checking the notes,goes to the back room and disappears with the money through the fire exit
the sums were around 12k $ total