Where to start the cursed wheel lock problem?

I’ll start by saying that my financial situation is very much not great right now. Needing a tire replacement in and of itself was enough to cause a bit of a setback.

Imagine my frustration when I go to have a tire replaced, only to be told at the tire shop that I need a wheel lock before they can remove the tire. I have torn my car apart trying to find this piece of metal I never anticipated needing, nor ever wanted, and I am convinced that this was never given to me by my dealership.

Online advice says to call them first. I do. Naturally, the only employee there capable of assisting me is nowhere to be found. Nice! They’ll “give me a call back”… of course, no call back yet.

Then, I call Toyota. They tell me I have to buy a key for $25. Obviously this isn’t ideal, but I’m running out of options here.

Ideally, I just want the dumb thing ripped off and thrown in the trash. It’s only made the already draining issue of needing repairs even more expensive and impossible to do.

I know legitimately nothing about cars, so I guess what I’m asking is what the most frugal option here would be. I have seen a multitude of people suggesting the hammer and the socket trick, but I don’t fully understand how to do this or what exactly I would need. I also admittedly don’t have faith in my ability to do it right, or where to go from there.

Here are some pics if this helps. It’s for a Toyota Camry 2014. Please help, I’m trying to work around having to wait around for a key to show up at my door because my tire is apparently very bald and I don’t want to wind up stuck on the side of the road with a tow bill (I commute a long distance for work so this is a legitimate fear of mine).

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you for reading.

by bakedbeannobeef