  The bright short-hard GRB 051103 was triangulated by the inter-planetary
network and found to occur in the direction of the nearby M81/M82 galaxy group.
Given its possible local-Universe nature, we searched for an afterglow
associated with this burst. We observed the entire 3-sigma error quadrilateral
using the Palomar 60-inch robotic telescope and the Very Large Array (VLA)
about three days after the burst. We used the optical and radio observations to
constrain the flux of any afterglow related to this burst, and to show that
this burst is not associated with a typical supernova out to z~0.15. Our
optical and radio observations, along with the Konus/Wind gamma-ray energy and
light curve are consistent with this burst being a giant flare of a Soft
Gamma-ray Repeater (SGR) within the M81 galaxy group. Furthermore, we find a
star forming region associated with M81 within the error quadrilateral of this
burst which supports the SGR hypothesis. If confirmed, this will be the first
case of a soft gamma-ray repeater outside the local group.
