This was a lot of fun to play. Reminds me of some of these old and weirdly engaging flash games, in a positive way. I've lost many hours to this kind of game. I liked the art style, too - I saw that you made it all yourself, and that's quite an accomplishment.
I wonder if the game would benefit from being a little faster? As it stands, the first 100m or so are fairly straightforward, and the dodging only becomes interesting after that. Maybe the "grace period" could be shortened a little?
This could also work really well on mobile devices, with dragging the thief left and right instead of keyboard controls.
All in all, well done! This was fun.