Seems to me that the most useful point of the LocalBitcoins service is to find traders willing to exchange via postal service. Face-to-face interaction seems like a bad move, especially since the money you're sending could be tracked to a "theft" and the service or trader might decide to snoop on you. And again, as the criminal complaint against Nod showed, using USPS is only safe if you act with sufficient randomness and change profiles. Otherwise they may detect a large pattern you generate.

It's also safer because it seems the government isn't likely to setup a major investigation for the case of BTC "theft".

(I say "theft" because it is possible, but unlikely, that the owner of the wallet transferred the money to someone intentionally, to pay them or something.)