Toyota keys (why do they lock themselves in the car?)

Must be an early model. I've had Corollas from the very early 2000s and none of them locked the car after a specific (or non-specific) interval. That's how they were designed AFAIAA.

I would suggest that, if the car in question is younger than, say, 2000, then it has an issued that needs to be attended to.

Short of doing that, get a key cut to match the original using a plain blank (no fob chip) and plant it in a magnetic keysafe somewhere easily accessible from outside the car but not visible. The key can be used to open the doors but it won't start the car because it hasn't got the chip. It can give you the ability to access the interior of the car to gain access to the keys locked in there. For that matter, you don't even need a magnetic keysafe, you can just keep the fobless cut blank in your wallet.

One point I should add. The pear shaped *doohickies* look like aftermarket immobiliser remotes. Not sure why they are there however as on my first Toyota, the engine immobiliser that was factory fitted was operated by the toyota branded remote. Current ones all operate on the key fob itself.

Looks like it may have an aftermarket immobiliser in it. If so, that could be removed. It might be the one giving trouble. From my experience, the Toyota immobiliser gave no trouble.