Sorry you had to go through this. What a scary situation. I would have done the same thing, returned his money and gotten my stuff returned, that way you are rid of that craziness.
I only gave away one thing on CL and it was leftover wood from my building my fence and deck. I couldn't haul all of it to a neutral spot so I had my daughter with me while the guy loaded it up. He was going to use it for a tree house for his sons. He was really happy with it. You have to be careful with folks nowdays.