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Perhaps, to his young mind, he didn't understand what he was doing wrong, so he did something else to cheer himself up, and was never punished for it at the time (the behavior is very similar to the behavior in this question. Over the past few years after they left the father, his mother became aware of the behavior and did begin to reprimand it, but I'm not sure of the details; they are not yet comfortable/have not yet overcome the experiences, so I may be wrong.

Perhaps, to his young mind, he didn't understand what he was doing wrong, so he did something else to cheer himself up, and was never punished for it at the time (the behavior is very similar to the behavior in this question). Over the past few years after they left the father, his mother became aware of the behavior and did begin to reprimand it, but I'm not sure of the details; they are not yet comfortable/have not yet overcome the experiences, so I may be wrong.

Perhaps, to his young mind, he didn't understand what he was doing wrong, so he did something else to cheer himself up, and was never punished for it at the time. Over the past few years after they left the father, his mother became aware of the behavior and did begin to reprimand it, but I'm not sure of the details; they are not yet comfortable/have not yet overcome the experiences, so I may be wrong.

Perhaps, to his young mind, he didn't understand what he was doing wrong, so he did something else to cheer himself up, and was never punished for it at the time (the behavior is very similar to the behavior in this question. Over the past few years after they left the father, his mother became aware of the behavior and did begin to reprimand it, but I'm not sure of the details; they are not yet comfortable/have not yet overcome the experiences, so I may be wrong.

One of the reasons I believe it to be kleptomania, rather than just childish greediness, is because his biological father was physically abusive to him at a young age. From what I've been told by his mother, if the father was in a bad mood, any "excessive noise" from the kids would send him into a rage, often needing her to step in and take the physical abuse so that the children wouldn't be physically harmed. However, as a side effect of this, my 9 yo may have developed some bad coping habits, such as taking things so that he could be happy in this environment.

I have looked at some other answers, and we have been going through the steps outlined in this answer to help him understand why his behavior is wrong. However at this point I believe the behavior is getting to a point of safety, not morality.

One of the reasons I believe it to be kleptomania, rather than just childish greediness, is because his biological father was physically abusive to him at a young age. From what I've been told by his mother, if the father was in a bad mood, any "excessive noise" from the kids would send him into a rage, often needing her to step in and take the physical abuse so that the children wouldn't be physically harmed. However, as a side effect of this, my 9 yo may have developed some bad coping habits, such as taking things so that he could be happy in this environment.