I agree that the earlier messages state it was to be shipped but, I am not sure what he can do if he received a pm from both buyer and seller that the coins would be hand delivered and then another set from both that the coins had been transferred in person and to release funds - what else can he do but release funds?
I would not have agreed to escrow a transaction that involved in person delivery. What if for example, the OPs account had not been hacked, and there was simply a dispute as to if the physical coin was actually delivered? There would be no way to resolve the dispute as it would be one persons word against the others.
Agreed on this. It's as if the escrow is useless if the transaction is delivered in person.
On the other note, I guess this can be prevented if the involve party used a different messaging app for faster communication or the escrow has other means of way to communicate, obviously to ping on what had happened to the buyer/seller.