BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. - Fugitive ex-policeman Christopher Dorner hid at least five days in a U.S. mountain cabin before surprising the owners, tying them up and stealing their car just hours before his presumed death in a fiery confrontation with police, the couple said.

Karen and Jim Reynolds said Dorner was upstairs in their rental condo in the mountains east of Los Angeles around noon Tuesday when they arrived to clean it.

The building is across the street from a command post established by authorities as they scoured the mountain for Dorner.

The fired Los Angeles policeman, who was sought at the time for three killings, confronted the Reynolds with a drawn gun, "jumped out and hollered, 'Stay calm,'" Jim Reynolds, 66, said during a Wednesday night news conference.

His 56-year-old wife screamed and ran down the staircase, but Dorner caught her, Reynolds said.

"He said, 'I don't have a problem with you, so I'm not going to hurt you,'" Jim Reynolds said. "I didn't believe him. I thought he was going to kill us."

Authorities have not corroborated the couple's account, which matches early reports from law enforcement officials that a couple had been tied up and their car stolen by a man resembling Dorner.

The Reynolds emerged Wednesday night to hold a brief news conference and clarify that they were the ones held by Dorner — not two cleaning women, as was widely reported.

The manhunt, one of the largest in recent memory, began last week after Dorner was linked to the killings of a former Los Angeles police captain's daughter and her fiance. He also is accused of killing two law enforcement officers.

After surprising Dorner in the cabin, the Reynolds said they were taken to a bedroom where they were ordered to lie on a bed and then the floor. Dorner bound their arms and legs with plastic ties, gagged them with towels and covered their heads with pillowcases wrapped with extension cords, they said.

"I really thought it could be the end," Karen Reynolds said.

The couple believes Dorner had been staying in the cabin at least since Friday. Dorner told them he had been watching them by day from inside the cabin as they did work outside. The couple, who live nearby, only entered the unit Tuesday.

"He said we are very hard workers, we're good people. He talked about how he could see Jim working on the snow every day," Karen Reynolds said.

Dorner repeatedly told the couple he just wanted to clear his name. He was calm and methodical during the 15-minute ordeal and didn't talk about the people he allegedly shot, she said.

At one point, Jim Reynolds said, "He huddled down beside me and said 'You're going to be quiet, right? Not make a fuss and let me get away?' "

Dorner then fled in their vehicle.

A short time later, Karen Reynolds was able to get to her feet and call police from a cellphone on the coffee table.

"Dorner tied us up, and he's in Big Bear," she recalled telling the dispatcher.

The couple did not immediately return several phone calls for comment by The Associated Press.

Authorities say Dorner later carjacked another man, shot at game wardens and killed a deputy in a shootout then holed up in another cabin that caught fire after tear gas was lobbed inside.

He is presumed to have died there, although authorities haven't officially confirmed his identity.

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